More Children Were Shot Dead in 2017 Than On-Duty Police Officers and Military

Re:More Children Were Shot Dead in 2017 Than On-Duty Police ... by perl4ever on Sunday March 24, 2019 @04:58PM (#19478744)

There are 1.4 million active duty members of the US military. There are about 0.8 million police officers "with general arrest powers". There are around 82 million children in the US.

So what the headline is saying, is that being a police officer or a soldier appears to be less than 37 times as dangerous as being a child.

The implication appears to be that this is startlingly low, but how dangerous do people think being a police officer should be, in a world that operated according to reasonable expectations? Would 40 times as dangerous be enough?

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Re:More Children Were Shot Dead in 2017 Than On-Duty Police ... by Svoka on Sunday March 24, 2019 @06:06PM (#19479053)

Being in a police force of military involves having guns. Kids should not have them, as far as I know. So, for me event 40x time is very high, I would expect outliers - 500x+.

Also, we could compare results to other countries, where kids are not legally allowed weapons as well. I was wondering what similar rates are in Canada, but my search skills failed me.

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Re:More Children Were Shot Dead in 2017 Than On-Duty Police ... by masonic on Sunday March 24, 2019 @08:54PM (#19479614)

  other countries, where kids are not legally allowed weapons as well

Kids are not "legally allowed weapons" in the US, either.

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Re:More Children Were Shot Dead in 2017 Than On-Duty Police ... by dariusj18 on Monday March 25, 2019 @09:27AM (#19482230)

That is not entirely true, as with most gun laws it is per state, and most states have no restriction on child ownership or possession of guns.

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Re:More Children Were Shot Dead in 2017 Than On-Duty Police ... by perl4ever on Monday March 25, 2019 @06:51PM (#19487501)

I assume you mean "40x is very low". However, I would ask you, doesn't it make sense that in a society where kids are less likely to be shot, police would also be less likely to be shot? In which case, the ratio might not go up.

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Re:More Children Were Shot Dead in 2017 Than On-Duty Police ... by leereeves on Monday March 25, 2019 @10:29AM (#19482670)

> Kids should not have them

15 to 18 year olds tend to obtain a lot of things they should not have, not only guns but other things that are illegal for them, like porn and alcohol, and things that are illegal for anyone to possess, like drugs.

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